jspeter9191 has added a photo to the pool:

In the afternoon at my village(Tallawong) sky, Sydney, Australia.
Jesus loves you.

John from Brisbane has added a photo to the pool:

From Brisbane's south side suburb of Wynnum, you can gaze out to the beautiful Marine Park of Moreton Bay in South East Queensland. Despite the rugged shore here, a bit of muddy sand because of proximity to the mouth of the Brisbane River and mangrove fringed tidal "beaches", there is also a smattering of red volcanic rocks which typify some edges of the bay both sides of the river. This results in the suburb of Redcliffe in the north and Redland Bay in the south. At this point, Wynnum Creek enters into the bay carrying nutrients that support plant and fish life and therefore pelicans that love this spot. In the middle distance is the former penal island of St Helena to which one can cruise and take a tour. It was an offshore "jail" but not a transported convict institution like some early settlements of Australia. The cruise down the river and out into the Bay is a very pleasant trip indeed. In the distance is Moreton Island, one of the large fringing sand islands of Moreton Bay with its magic beauty of Tangalooma Wild Dolphin Resort (until the early 1970's a whaling station), beautiful western facing sandy beaches, the largest vegetated sand dunes in the world and a colony of sunken small ships forming a superlative dive site.

Keith Midson has added a photo to the pool:

Taroona, Tasmania.

Paardenforum Bokt, een van de oudste nog actieve internetcommunity’s van Nederland en België, heeft juridische problemen en zoekt daar hulp voor. Dat meldden Nu.nl en Tweakers onlangs. De stichting Paard Zoekt Baas eist dat Bokt bepaalde negatieve berichten over de stichting verwijdert, en om zich te verweren moet Bokt een advocaat inschakelen, wat ze niet kan betalen.

Eigenaar Bart legt in een forumpost uit:

Stichting Paard Zoekt Baas heeft Bokt.nl gedagvaard. Kort samengevat gaat de zaak over kritische berichten die gebruikers op Bokt.nl hebben geplaatst. De stichting stelt dat Bokt.nl daarvoor verantwoordelijk is, dat wij berichten sneller hadden moeten verwijderen en daarnaast is er een claim rondom een aantal afbeeldingen. …

Bij de kantonrechter kan in dit soort zaken maximaal €25.000 aan schadevergoeding worden toegewezen. Omdat Stichting Paard Zoekt Baas nu inzet op een hoger schadebedrag, is de zaak doorverwezen naar de handelskamer. Daar mogen we niet meer zelf procederen: vanaf dit moment is een advocaat wettelijk verplicht.

Inhoudelijk is er vast van alles van de claims van de stichting te vinden. Bij Tubantia staat een mooie samenvatting. Veel recensies over de stichting zijn te vinden op Trustpilot. Ouder nieuws hier.

Maar dat is hier niet het probleem. Als je je niet kunt verweren tegen een claim, dan houdt het bij de rechter snel op. Dus het kan gebeuren dat je verliest tegen een kansloze claim enkel omdat je geen advocaat een verweer liet indienen.

Frustrerend, vandaar de fundraiser om alsnog een advocaat in te kunnen huren. Wie dit leest: wil je ook doneren, net als ik?

Velen tipten me het bericht, en stelden dat dit een SLAPP rechtszaak is: een strategic lawsuit against public participation, oftewel een rechtszaak ingestoken om Bokt het zwijgen op te leggen. Zoals ik in oktober blogde, dat is in Europa omschreven als

gerechtelijke procedures die niet worden ingeleid om daadwerkelijk een recht te doen gelden of uit te oefenen, maar die als voornaamste doel het voorkomen, beperken of bestraffen van publieke participatie hebben, waarbij vaak misbruik wordt gemaakt van ongelijke machtsverhoudingen tussen de partijen en ongegronde vorderingen worden ingesteld.

De sanctiemechanismen uit deze wet zijn niet denderend sterk: een proceskostenveroordeling of publicatie van het vonnis, tsja. In Nederland kan hiermee de conclusie worden onderbouwd dat een procespartij misbruik van recht maakt, zodat hun claim moet worden afgewezen. Maar het lastige blijft: de rechter moet dit bepalen en wie daar niet heen kan, krijgt geen gelijk.

Dus: doneren, alstublieft.

Arnoud

Het bericht 25 jaar oude internetcommunity Bokt heeft juridische problemen en zoekt hulp verscheen eerst op Ius Mentis.

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CENTCOM schreef 3 uur geleden het volgende: "Op 12 juli voerde CENTCOM een nieuwe reeks offensieve aanvallen uit op Iran. Hierbij werden met precisiewapens tientallen doelen op meerdere locaties geraakt, met als doel het vermogen van Iran te ondermijnen om aanvallen te blijven uitvoeren op de internationale scheepvaart in de Straat van Hormuz. Strijdkrachten van CENTCOM vielen Iraanse militaire luchtverdedigingssystemen, kustradarinstallaties, raket- en dronecapaciteiten en kleine vaartuigen aan. Hierbij werden Amerikaanse gevechtsvliegtuigen, marineschepen, lucht-zelfmoorddrones  en – voor het eerst – zee-zelfmoorddrones ingezet."

Opmerkelijk, CENTCOM spreekt hier opnieuw van "offensieve aanvallen". Dat deed het op 8 juli voor het eerst, daarvoor werd er (op 11 juni voor het laatst) steeds gesproken van "defensieve aanvallen". Kortom, sinds Trump het nieuwe Iraanse leiderschap weer "SCUM" vindt, is de taal aanvallend. 

De IRGC claimt ondertussen dat het aanvallen heeft uitgevoerd op "de Prince Hassan-vliegbasis in Jordanië, een Amerikaans militair commandocentrum voor drones in Bahrein en vliegbases waaronder Ali Al Salem in Koeweit." Jordanië zegt dat het vier Iraanse raketten neergeschoten heeft en ook Koeweit zegt dat de luchtverdediging actief is, al noemen zij geen cijfers.

Afijn, een schermutseling ter ere van de gisteren plotseling overleden Lindsey Graham, die overigens onmiddellijk reïncarneert als het vijfde kind van Ben Shapiro. Wij gaan weer eens live.

Welkom terug Lindsey Graham

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Houdt onze inlichtenvloot in de lucht!

Doneer hier

Thomas Hawk posted a photo:

Thomas Hawk posted a photo:

Thomas Hawk posted a photo:

handwritten on back of photograph, "Uncle Claud and Martha Ann"

Thomas Hawk posted a photo:

ajpscs posted a photo:

LOTUS & WATER LILIES
ON MY KNEES, I CAN SEE FOREVER
© ajpscs

Thomas Hawk posted a photo:

Long-time Slashdot reader necro81 writes: There are several companies, such as Tesla, trying to make semi trucks fully electric. The capital cost for such a truck, and the MW-scale infrastructure to recharge it, may be a hard sell for some operators. [IEEE Spectrum notes that's a charging infrastructure "that most freight corridors do not yet reliably provide."] But some companies are instead adding batteries and an electric motor to the semi-trailers that trucks haul behind them.

"The Nivalis Powered Trailer Kit centers on an electric axle [rated at 50 kilowatts-peak]... capable of both propulsion assistance and regenerative braking. It draws on a 60-kilowatt-hour, 400-volt lithium-ion battery pack charged from three sources: the axle itself during braking and deceleration, a full-rooftop array of photovoltaic panels generating up to 3.7 kilowatts-peak, and a 32-amp, three-phase AC grid connection available during parking stops."


This approach is more akin to a plug-in hybrid: the truck may still be diesel-powered, but the electric assist from the trailer allows the truck to run more efficiently. Replacing diesel with kWh can save operators money while also reducing emissions. This incremental approach may be more accessible and less capital-intensive than replacing the truck itself.
From the article:

The driver's only window into the system is a small display readable from the cab's side mirror that shows the system status and battery charge level. Nothing about the trailer's handling or licensing requirements changes. The partners project savings of up to 7,000 liters of diesel per trailer per year, which is enough to keep about 19 tonnes of carbon dioxide out of the air...

Trailer Dynamics, an Aachen-based company, has conducted field tests with BMW Logistics, DB Schenker, Duvenbeck, and Volkswagen Konzernlogistik, reporting average fuel savings of around 40% for diesel tractor combinations, substantially higher than the up to 18% reduction implied by the Nivalis projection... Trailer Dynamics prices its system between €145,000 and €195,000 and targets a payback period of no more than five years. Nivalis targets five to six years at current costs.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

California drew more than $335 billion in venture capital funding this year, reports the Los Angeles Times, citing data released Thursday by PitchBook on private market funding:

Its next biggest competitor, New York, raised less than a tenth of California's total. Texas raised 1/40th of the amount... Although a campaign for a new tax on billionaires has convinced some ultra-rich residents to shift to other states and businesses often complain that high property and energy costs and an anti-business regulatory regime make it too tough to make money in the state, the inability of the top talent, companies and investors in AI to set up elsewhere shows California's enduring attraction.

The state's economy grew 5% last year to a record $4.25 trillion, making it larger than every country other than the U.S., China and Germany. It is home to nearly 400 billion-dollar startups — more than any other state, according to CB Insights... Among metropolitan regions, Los Angeles ranked behind only Silicon Valley and New York, which attracted $98 billion and $11.5 billion in venture investment, respectively... Investors poured in nearly $8 billion across 207 deals in the Los Angeles, Long Beach, and Santa Ana metro areas, up 28% from a year earlier, according to PitchBook...

Nearly 90% of invested dollars [in California] went to AI firms, up from last year, when around 65% of new funds were allocated to AI. "If you're a tech company and you're not an AI company, you have a very, very difficult opportunity ahead of you to raise capital," Stanford said.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Klarna biedt de mogelijkheid om aankopen te doen en die binnen drie maanden te betalen – een betaalmethode waarvoor een consument niet doorgelicht hoeft te worden op kredietwaardigheid. Een claimstichting meent dat Klarna al die tijd wel die checks had moeten uitvoeren – en claimt daarom 500 miljoen euro.

Het is heet en het wordt steeds heter. Juni was de warmste maand ooit in West-Europa en experts zeggen we hoppen straks van hittegolf naar hittegolf.

Het is de favoriete oneliner van armoedeorganisaties en beleidsmakers: armoede discrimineert niet en kan iedereen treffen. Dat klinkt sympathiek, maar dit ‘pechframe’ verhult een keiharde klassensamenleving.

Sommige dingen moet je zelf doen, hoe onhandig en tijdrovend ze ook zijn. Een machine kan niet voor je scheppen, niet voor je begrijpen, niet voor je leven. Mens zijn kost tijd, dus lees die verdomde nieuwsbrief gewoon zelf.

Meta has withdrawn the first image generation product created by its Superintelligence Labs fewer than 72 hours after launch. The product was called “Muse Image” and Meta launched it on July 8, billing it as “the first AI image generation model from Meta Superintelligence Labs.” That lab is Zuck’s latest big bet and aims to create a “personal superintelligence that knows us deeply, understands our goals, and can help us achieve them.” In the case of Muse AI, that help came in the form of applying one of 30 new filters that “uniquely understand Instagram videos and photos and can interpret your photo's scene — the lighting, composition, and subject — to make nuanced edits that feel natural and true to you.” Instagram users could use those effects to “transform your photos with a single tap,” the social networking company promised. Users could also apply the filters to content posted by third parties. “Meta is also launching the ability to @mention friends’ public Instagram accounts in Meta AI and generate creative AI images featuring them, such as personalized birthday cards, group trip memes, or playful edits between friends. It's an upgrade to what people can create with AI features at Meta, making it more personal, fun, and social,” the company said. Meta almost certainly leads the world in three things: The number of people signed up to its social networks; experience of people behaving horribly online, and; dealing with community backlashes after privacy abuses. Yet somehow it didn’t imagine that enabling this feature by default might be controversial, or that allowing users to alter images with AI might be abused. Backlash was therefore swift and widespread. Actors’ union SAG-AFTRA condemned the product. “Anything other than a clear and conspicuous OPT-IN for these types of uses of Instagram users’ images is unacceptable, and an utter miscalculation of public sentiment regarding the obvious dangers and harms inherent in such use,” it posted on Instagram. Within three days of release, Meta realized the error of its ways and pulled the product. “Earlier this week, we announced that one way for people to generate images in Meta AI is by @-mentioning public Instagram accounts that they want to reference,” the company wrote. “Our intent was to provide a useful creative tool and to give people control over whether their public content could be referenced in this way. We've heard the feedback that this feature missed the mark, so it's no longer available.” Interestingly, Meta says several of the effects it offered were “designed by Instagram creators, who used Meta AI to amplify their creativity and bring their ideas to life.” Zuck believes users of his social networks mostly want to see content made by creators – Meta-speak for prominent accounts who post a lot – rather than content produced by media outlets or others. Involving creators in Meta’s own creative processes has now backfired. ®

ASIA IN BRIEF Lenovo has denied it sells laptops that include banned Chinese storage devices where they're not allowed. An outlet called Notebookcheck recently reported that it a ThinkBook 14 G9 IPL and found a solid-state disk made by Chinese company YMTC inside. Some observers joined the dots and decided the laptop could be a problem for Lenovo because a Biden administration decision saw the US ban the company on national security grounds. Lenovo dug into the matter and found the laptop in question was not sold into the US market, but was a model destined for Germany. As Notebookcheck’s headquarters is Romania, and the team responsible for the review are in Austria, a made-for-Germany laptop crossing one of the European Union’s internal borders is a long way short of a scandal. Lenovo’s use of a Chinese SSD is, however, notable for two reasons. One is that Beijing encourages Chinese companies to buy from their local peers. The other is that the AI boom has sent prices for memory and storage devices soaring, and YMTC is one of few alternatives to leading suppliers Samsung, Micron, and SK Hynix. Apple reportedly wants the Trump administration to reconsider the USA’s ban on YMTC, to help it find the parts it needs to keep cranking out iThings. China recovers a rocket for the first time China’s National Space Agency (CNSA) last Friday recovered the first stage of a rocket for the first time. The Agency announced it used a ship-borne net to catch the first stage of a Long March-10B carrier rocket that launched a satellite, then guided itself to safety. SpaceX has been doing this for years, because re-using the first stage of a rocket saves a lot of money. China naturally wants the same capability as it will advance its commercial and national security interests. Japan has the same ambition and on Saturday conducted a successful test of a rocket that took off, reached an altitude of 11 meters and hovered there briefly before settling back to Earth without incident. In other China space news, CNSA announced its Tianwen-2 probe arrived at asteroid 2016HO3, pulling to within 20 kilometers of the space rock on a mission that aims to retrieve a sample of the object and return it to Earth. Australia signals strong AI regulation – including copyright protection Australia’s prime minister Anthony Albanese will this week deliver a speech outlining a revised AI policy. The PM’s speech will come a week after Andrew Charlton, assistant minister for science, tech, and the digital economy, observed “AI’s social licence is precarious” and added “The point of AI safety is not to slow the future down. It is to make sure the future remains human, aligned with our values, and advancing our interests.” Albanese has also mentioned social license ahead of his speech. One issue the PM is expected to address is amendments to Australian copyright laws that would allow AI companies free access to content to train their models. Musician Holly Rankin today told Australian radio she has had assurances such amendments are not part of the government’s AI plan – setting a stage for a showdown with Big Tech. A datacenter for Bhutan, serving India, via Canada The AI datacenter boom has reached the Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan. The tiny landlocked nation, population 750,000, is blessed with impressive hydro-electric power resources. The developer of this project, Canadian company Sato, plans to use renewable energy generated by those resources to power a datacenter in the Gelephu Mindfulness City (GMC), a district located just over the border from India. The local authority that runs GMC will reserve 100MW of firm power for the project, and could in future allocate 500MW. Sato will use the juice to power a datacenter that serves clients in India, a nation the Canadian company says has huge appetite for AI, but struggles to develop datacenters due to electricity supply constraints. “The Project is anticipated to deliver low-latency AI compute to India's major demand centres,” Sato says. APNIC to Malaysia: Your own NIR would change nothing The Asia Pacific Network Information Center (APNIC), the regional internet registry for the region, has published [PDF] its submission to the Malaysian government’s consultation on forming a new national internet registry (NIR) and argued that doing so would essentially be futile. “Cybersecurity, IPv6 acceleration, cost, and local support are not dependent on, and in several respects would not be advanced by, the establishment of a Malaysian NIR,” the submission argues. APNIC also argues that if Malaysia were to establish a NIR it would not increase the availability of IPv4 addresses in Malaysia, or change the criteria for allocation of IPv6 addresses or autonomous system numbers. Nor would it confer any preferential access to resources for Malaysian-based parties. “APNIC makes these observations not to oppose the establishment of a Malaysian NIR, but to assist MCMC and Malaysian stakeholders in calibrating the expected outcomes of such a step,” the submission states. Crims targeting Chinese VPN users Infosec outfit Threatlocker last week identified malware disguised as an installer for Kuailian VPN (aka LetsVPN), a package often used by Chinese netizens who want to subvert the nation’s Great Firewall. Threatlocker says the malware “drops and executes an encrypted RAT that provides attackers with complete control over a victim’s machine and its data.” China’s National Computer Virus Emergency Center (CVERC) has also spotted malware targeting local users in the form of a fake Android education app. CVERC says the malware is a new variant of a financial theft-related mobile Trojan virus, and can intercept users' text messages, steal contacts and phone passwords, use a device’s cameras, record the screen, and even use a phone’s microphone to record ambient audio. Links to the malware spread through text messages and social media software. ®

Spend a half-hour on a guided tour through two notorious Amsterdam cruising hotspots in the video Inside Dirty D & Eagle - Gay Cruising Clubs Amsterdam: FULL TOUR. Tours given before hours so the clubs are empty. See what even people attending for a night of fun won't see because lights can be strictly forbidden. Adventurous, flirty, perhaps eye-opening.